Swing

The path the the striker follows through the air is called a lane.

The simplest thing you can do with a nunchaku is swing it in a straight lane, a straight swing. Straight swings aren't really straight, just broad curves, but the name fits. Straight swings begin in one place and end in another, they're not continuous. With freestyle, most straight swings can end in a bounce, so we'll get onto them more with bounces.

The next most basic is a circle swing. Hold one stick and swing the other around in a circle.

If your hand and handle are perfectly still, with just the striker circling from the handle's tip it's called a point swing, but if your wrist and the handle are circling too, it's a pivot swing. Circle swings are continuous.

The sphere of space the striker is circling within around your hand is called a pocket. You can move your arm into many different positions, and circle the nunchaku, which means there are many different pockets. Lanes link pockets together.

Swings and Planes

 * On the near wall a circling nunchaku can upspin as if you were going to hit upwards into someone's groin, or downspin as if you were going to hit downwards onto someone's head.
 * If you turn those ninety degrees from the wall plane onto the face plane an upspin becomes an outspin heading towards the near wall, and a downspin becomes an inspin towards the core plane, or far wall.
 * If you tilt those ninety degrees from the face plane onto the table plane, an outspin becomes a nearspin, still heading towards the near wall, and and the inspin becomes a farspin, moving towards the far wall.

That's three dimensions, with two directions of rotation around each axis - six different swings. There are of course an infinite amount of variations possible by tilting your planes and bending your lanes, but these directions are like your compass points, and all other variations can be described in relation to them.


 * If you swing in circles on parallel planes you're swinging inplane.
 * If you swing in circles on different planes you're bending your planes.
 * Upspin, downspin, inspin and outspin are considered vertical swings.
 * Nearspin and farspin are considered horizontal swings.
 * When spinning vertically, if you begin in either grip with you palm facing up, to the roof, your hand is in a begging position.
 * If you turn your hand over, so the palm faces the floor, your hand is in a zombie position.
 * If you turn your hand over again, so your arm is twisted around but the palm faces up again, your hand is in a screwball position.

Figure-8 Swings
Main article: Figure-8

A figure-8 (F8) is a type of swing in which the striker transitions between planes. A figure-8 is made up of two or more circular swings connected by a crossing. The type of swing is so named because the path of motion of the striker resembles the symbols for the number eight (8) or infinity (∞).

Fades and Stops
It's not enough to just swing as fast as you can. A good freestyler should have complete control of their instrument, and includes knowing how to take speed out of the swing, not just put it in. Slowing the nunchaku down is called a fade.
 * If you fade the nunchaku to a dead stop is called a stop.
 * If you stop the nunchaku at 6 O'Clock they will just hang straight down, a down stop.
 * If you stop the nunchaku at 3 or 9 O'Clock they will stop out sideways, a side stop.
 * If you stop the nunchaku at 12 O'Clock, which is most difficult, it's an up stop.